State of Palestine

Other strategies used to control and expel Palestinians include the separation wall/fence, settlement building, political repression, deprivation of necessary resources such as water, divide and rule, economic dependency and misinformation.

The problem of Palestine has become a regional crisis that many international and regional players have attempted to resolve, however, due to a lack of will on the Israeli side to compromise for the sake of peace with Palestine and the rest of the Arab world, there has been no valuable movement in this regard.

Throughout the past 60 years, the Palestinians, at various times in their struggle against Zionist encroachment, have mounted both violent and non-violent resistance movements, the former of which has been used by the Israeli government to justify its heinous treatment of the Palestinians. The ascent of the Islamic militant group Hamas within the Palestinian political scene has significantly polarized the Palestinian populace, thus giving Israel a golden opportunity to push its “security” platform to the international community, particularly its American ally, whose vast sums of financial support have been a valuable asset of the Israeli occupation. In an environment increasingly hostile to Arab Muslims, Israel has had little opposition to its policies towards the Palestinians and in the region as a whole.

While the peace process remains at a standstill, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is gearing up for a UN General Assembly vote in September 2011 on its declaration of a state along the 1967 Green Line. While both Israel and America are opposed to such a unilateral action, they have yet to do anything that signals a real dedication to a resolution of the conflict through other means. At this time, it is still unclear as to what a victory for the PA would achieve with regard to negotiations with Israel, however, the mere fact that the PA has made such a controversial decision highlights the government’s commitment to appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad’s ambitious and unilateral state-building program. A lasting reconciliation between Palestine’s main political parties, Hamas and Fatah, is an imperative step in this process.